Diabetes in the long run. My personal experience of what it's like to be a type 1 diabetic runner and triathlete.

Thought for the Day

Sunday, January 11, 2004

Rock 'N' Roll Arizona Marathon 2004

A tale of two days.It was a glorious day. It was a sh***y day.Because of my goal finish time, I was put in corral #2 of 16. I felt lucky as I passed all of the other corrals and got closer and closer to the start.The start was half an hour late. Rumor was they had trouble getting everyone shuttled from the parking at the finish to the start.Standing around waiting, I met a type 1 diabetic from Martha's Vinyard. This was his 13th marathon. He had the same goal pace as me, but he has run many faster marathons. We talked insulin and glucometers and such before the national anthem. The anthem was played by a jazz trumpet soloist, and it was as moving as any rendition I've ever heard, especially standing within yards of the nearest flag, hanging from the mast of the USS Arizona.I felt great for the first 8 miles. I enjoyed the bands and the cheerleaders for the whole race. It would have been great. I was actually peeved around mile 10 to pass an empty stage. We're out there running for hours. I wasn't an hour behind first place at that point in the race. But one of the bands was already taking a break. Hardly rocking instead of rocking hard.Anyway, I guess my GI tract wasn't fully recovered from whatever I had earlier this week. At around mile 8 or after, I started to have the runs. I couldn't go very far without stopping to try to restrain myself from crapping my pants.Eventually it was futile. I made a 4 minute pit stop right after the half marathon point. Tried to clean up in a portajohn.I know the stories of elite marathoners finishing and even winning marathons in spite of this problem, but I didn't have that much to gain. I finished the race, but I took several long stops along the way.It was a fantastic race. Not ideal for me, but certainly great for thousands of others.

Here's my splits from the results. I have mile splits, but you don't need any more gory details.